Voters in Chambers County briefly went back to voting on paper ballots Monday morning after a glitch was discovered in the county's voting machines.

Author:
KBMT

Published:
4:35 PM CDT October 25, 2016

Updated:
4:35 PM CDT October 25, 2016

Voters in Chambers County briefly went back to voting on paper ballots Monday morning after a glitch was discovered in the county's voting machines.

The issue was actually discoveredd on Monday morning when Chambers County Clerk Heather Hawthorne was casting her own ballot and the voter next to her noticed that one of her votes was not filled in when she reviewed her electronic ballot Hawthorne told 12News on Tuesday.

An error in the voting machine programming by Election Systems & Software (ES&S) caused votes for one statewide court of appeals race not to be entered when a voter tried to vote straight ticket in either party according to a release from Chambers County.

Hawthorne immediately contacted ES&S to advise them of the issue and then contacted the Texas Secretary of State's office according to the release.

ES&S is the vendor that Chambers County contracts with to program their voting machines.

The Texas Secretary of State's office informed Hawthorne to create emergency paper ballots to continue voting until the problem could be fixed according to the release.

Moving temporarily to paper ballots in such a situation is standard protocol Hawthorne told 12News.

ES&S, which is based in Dallas, sent software to correct the issue and Hawthorne and her crew have been working to fix the issue Tuesday she told 12News.

Hawthorne told 12News that the machines in Baytown and Mont Belvieu have been fixed and that the machines in Anahuac and Winnie should be repaired by the end of the day Tuesday.